darkfall_newdawnfandomcom-20200214-history
3.8b
What started as a bugfix patch ended up as a "game feel" patch, focusing on making the game feel more reactive, obey the player's orders, and communicate feedback when an action cannot be done. Skill triggering: In the initial 3.8 patch, we reworked how skill triggering occurred and removed some steps to make the system closer to the networking layer and reduce client side delay. It also assured that we would have an easier time developing the user interface. This revealed many underlying issues with how skill and actions were synchronized between client and server, as the system relied on the client being "slow". Even before these changes, some skills could get an animation but not get registered by the game, and having a smoother client made the issue more prevalent. This forced us to rework that part of the synchronization system to be reliable and have more validation steps. This is something that was planned to happen later in the development process, but it allowed us to, while we were at it, solve some of the long standing clunkiness issues too. This is once a again a pretty deep rework, and we've tested as much as we could with our limited resources. Remember, there are issues from 3.8 we never could reproduce, and we'll have to rely on those of you that had blocking and/or skills not triggering issues to let us know how this patch is affecting you. On to the changes: * Ghost melee attacks and spells canceling mid cast should no longer happen. * Holding the parry key in between attacks will now start parrying as soon as the character is able to. * Right clicking to parry will now unsheathe weapons too. * The auto-revert feature has been combed for any issues and should now properly go back to the desired weapon. * When holding a skill and selecting the next skill to queue, the first skill won't be released anymore and can still be held. * Auto-attacks with cannons and grenades should now work again. Game Feedback: With a tighter control on skill and their execution, we decided it was time to tell the players more about why some input in combat did not result in an action. Things like no longer having reagents or a certain type of resource will now be more obvious, which should help a lot newer players unable yet to manage long fights and their vital stats. This is only the first step in what we call game feedback, and we'll try to expand on it until the system tab is no longer necessary mid fight. * The currently selected skill tooltip will now show reagents needed on selection. * When a skill cannot be executed for any reason, there will be a tooltip popping next to the skill selection part of the hotbar, explaining why to the player. * When hovering your mouse over an item in your backpack, weaponsbar or hotbar, the slots in which it is linked will blink and it will appear clearer in the inventory. * Hovering over a bag when drag and dropping an item will now make it blink to show the item will be placed in the bag. Miscellaneous and QoL improvements: * The feature of dropping items in bags can now be disabled in the GUI Options. * Hotbar slots now have a button in their menu allowing to set a direct bind to them. * When a lootable inventory is opened, the backpack is automatically shown too. * There is now a loot all button in monster inventories, the F key also allows to trigger that action. * When updating a weaponsbar slot, it will update hotbar slots only if the new weapon is compatible. You will no longer erase all your work for a misclick. * When running out of arrows, they will automatically be equipped if there are any in the player's inventory. * When dismounting, the weapon should now be sheathed without delay. * When repeatedly doing ctrl + double click, it will each time expand the selection to the parent category of items. For exemple: Goblin axes -> All 1h axes -> all weapons -> all items. * Row next and row prev should now work properly again. * Wildlife animals no longer give xp gains. Feedback and bugfix follow up: * Once a grave is looted, the 'loot all' button evolves to a 'close' button that closes the gui when pressed. * The backpack should now open automatically (if closed) when opening any other inventory. * Dragging and dropping a selected stackable item on a stackable item of the same type should now also transfer all the selection. * The archery locking-bug should no longer happen. * Skills should no longer switch to their bound weaponsbar slot's hotbar without the option checked. * Skills auto-cast should work again after attempting it (and failing) while on cooldown.